First peg of Bombay Life..

Everyone was hooked onto their new laptops. Some were installing software, others skyping and the rest on facebook doing nothing. And that was my n^th call from Suhail to get ready to step out of the campus. When someone asks a question like who will be ranked the last in the class, hardly any hands shoot up. Everyone thinks that they won’t be the last, yet there is someone among them who will come last. Applying the same logic, no one was ready by 8 PM, yet everyone wanted to leave by the same time. In small groups of 3-4, we started for Kanjur Marg station, the nearest to the campus. It was indeed nearest when there is no traffic and one can easily take an auto to reach. But, talk about walking the whole distance, you would find no takers for it. Yet against all odds, 15 out of the 16 pseudo-intellectual kids made to the station by foot (myself, Dhruv, Kartik, Kaashi, Chotu, Parthiv, Nikhil, Boro, Debshree, Reshu, Hemangi, Tanya, Rajeev, Vijay, Suhail and Nisan). Vaibhav was smart enough to reach the station well in advance and paid the penalty by buying extra tickets (None returned the money yet, so eventually he paid for everyone’s travel). To add interesting information, there were a few guys at the station who winked at him, mistaking him to be a member of IITB’s “Saathi”.

The slow train to CST made its way into the second platform of the station. With 45 minutes chit-chat, we reached CST. The kids were so hungry that they did not even spare a stale samosa. They hogged down until the last tiny crumble, while the confusion of who is going where were sorted by big shots. As it happens in all the board room meetings, no conclusion was reached and the whole lot headed to Leopold’s, barring two mariners who went to the Marine Club. And to our surprise, Leopold’s was ready to accommodate a 15-member group without any fuss. Boys in the house were hell bent on getting drunk, while girls in the house just wanted a break out loose.

After placing the initial orders of beer towers, steak pasta, iced tea, burgers and coke, the first toast was raised for the first weekend in a month. The past month was strenuous like never before. The kids felt like the mayonnaise sauce that squeezes itself out of the tightly packed grilled buns. Once the boys started tilting towards the higher side, the dissertation on “how to identify Indians hailing from different parts of India based on a single word “B****C**D”” started. The good thing about being in a delightfully high company is that, one can easily reach a conclusion. It is quite true that great minds work cohesively when the right kind of motivation (beer) is provided.

One can’t keep the Punjabis in the house out for too long, without them singing their favorite numbers. With 7 Punjabis in the house, one has to oblige their wish to sing, even though the Leopold’s’ waiters thought otherwise. Then came the highlighted phase of the song session – we picked up common songs in Hindi and Tamil and thanks to ARR, we had quite a few numbers. Until then 5 beer towers were gulped down by 7 of them and 3 Coke cans by me. With a vote of thanks by “Bhaag DK Bose”, we exited Leopold’s and headed for Nariman Point.

One word – Absolute beauty. Moonlit Arabian Sea, waves crashing the rocks on which we were sitting, talking about places to visit and things to do, each of us actually felt the pulse of the moment. Knowingly or unknowingly we connected back to our past, thinking about our personal best times, sinking in the unrealistic reality of living life the way we always wanted to. The erstwhile Mumbai police came and warded us off as there were indications of high tide and that’s when it started drizzling. Bombay, chicken, beer (read coke), beach and rain with no deadlines to meet – A few of the blissful moments in life. We settled down along the rocky shore singing songs once again, this time with the aid of mobile phones.

Once the mood of the group changed to Back Street Boys, I, Kartik Calling Kartik (Kartik Dua), Debu (Debshree Buttercharjee), Hooda City Centre (Reshu Hooda) and Gullu (Vaibhav Gulati) left for a walk along the shore. Sensing the ramblings in our stomachs, we set out to pay a visit to Haji Ali Juice Centre. Apart from the Queens Necklace, the other roads in Bombay are also studded with lights, buildings and well-lit showrooms of Porche and Aston Martin. Disappointed in finding out that the juice centre to be closed, we headed straight to Shalimar Restaurant in Masjid. After having fulfilling Faloodas, we walked to the Masjid station to catch the first local train back to Kanjur Marg. En route, we discussed about why Bombay never sleeps (barbers were busy shaving at 4 am), existence of God, aliens and a lot other trivial stuffs. We reached the campus by 0515 am and hit our beds and for the first time in a month we had no idea of when to wake-up to reality. Cheers!!!